College official placed on leave
The president of Adams State University has been placed on leave amid accusations that she bullied faculty and staff members, failed to stem declining student enrollment and mocked bluecollar workers with an offensive Halloween costume that sparked an uproar when photos began circulating on campus.
Beverlee McClure, who became the university’s first female president in April 2015, was placed on leave last week by the school’s board of trustees, leaving the small San Luis Valley school struggling financially and under probation by a national accreditation organization, and critics angry — and still fearful — in her wake.
McClure, hired for her business acumen, has been attacked by detractors as being abrasive and
combative. Critics say her dismissive attitude toward anyone but those in her inner circle was put on display at an Oct. 26, 2016, Halloween party. McClure attended dressed as an obese plumber and outfitted in a prosthetic fat suit and rotting buck teeth.
“It just showed her contempt for the working people in the community in Alamosa, which is very blue-collar and workingclass,” said former faculty member Danny Ledonne. “But that is McClure. She cultivated this campus culture of bullying and backstabbing, and anyone who didn’t agree with her or her group were thrown under the bus.”
Several attempts were made to contact McClure, but phone messages were not returned. A university spokeswoman said the school had no way to reach her.
Trustees did not offer details on McClure’s leave, except to say that “the priorities of the current board are no longer congruent with the priorities of the president, and the parties are therefore working to accomplish a mutually agreeable resolution. Dr. McClure will be on leave while the parties work through the details of a transition. The board has asked Dr. Matt Nehring to temporarily assume the duties and responsibilities of president.”
Five former and present Adams State University faculty members who spoke to The Denver Post all backed up Ledonne’s characterization of McClure’s temperament and tactics, but they asked that their names not be used for fear of retaliation from her.
“I’m reluctant to speak up too much since ... I imagine she will seek revenge even if fired,” a current faculty member said, adding that McClure is “incompetent to lead a university . ... Her people skills are awful because she is vindictive, hyper-sensitive to criticism, and just plain mean. She mocks people less fortunate than herself, like a waitperson with a stutter.”
McClure has previously said her critics are sexist, and she has accused Ledonne of cyberbullying.
“I believe that stronger laws are needed to protect victims of Internet mobs and cyber bullying,” McClure said in a statement last year. “I hope others will join me in the efforts to support these laws at the state and federal level. We cannot continue to allow Internet mobs to stifle the free speech of others.”
McClure banned Ledonne from campus in late 2015, declaring him a security threat. Ledonne taught in the school’s mass communication program from 2011-15 and also operated a video production business, Emberwild Productions. His business required him to attend and film events on the Adams State campus.
After the school didn’t renew his contract, Ledonne launched Watching Adams, in which he criticized Adams State’s pay practices and accused the university of violating state law by failing to make timely payments to adjunct professors.
The ACLU sued the university, which rescinded Ledonne’s banishment in July 2016 and paid $100,000 to settle the lawsuit. Ledonne now documents and writes about Adams State and its recent woes.
A steady enrollment slide is adding to the school’s problems. During the three years of McClure’s tenure, enrollment has dropped from 1,770 undergraduates in 2015 to 1,577 in 2018, a 12 percent decline.
But Board of Trustees Chair Cleave Simpson said low unemployment is mostly to blame for dipping enrollment, adding that when jobs are plentiful people are less likely to chase a degree.
“People are going to go to work quicker than going to college,” Simpson said. “Adams State faces the same challenges a lot of small, rural colleges face. Getting people to enroll in a good economy is a big challenge.”
The university decided to bring on McClure to build enrollment and cut costs stemming from a campus construction boom, Ledonne said. Before she was hired by Adams State for the $205,000 annual salary — minus benefits — McClure was president and CEO of the New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry.
That group acts as the statewide chamber of commerce and a business policy think tank.
McClure began streamlining budgets, and staff levels declined, mostly due to people leaving because of low morale, Ledonne said. Enrollment also continued to decline, he said.
“McClure came into a difficult situation and in many instances worsened it, in terms of finances and morale,” he said.
Among those who left under McClure’s term as president was Chris Gilmer, who served as vice president for academic affairs. He resigned a year ago and said that although he valued McClure as a friend and colleague, their friendship had “unfortunately dissolved and has begun to affect the university in a negative way.”
The Halloween party where McClure showed up in her fat suit was at Gilmer’s house, Ledonne said.
Also last week, the trustees voted to begin a series of cuts to help boost the school’s operating budget by $2.7 million. It was a step toward bolstering its shaky financial standing and answering concerns about Adams State’s fiscal and academic management.
The Higher Learning Commission, which accredits roughly 1,000 institutions of higher education, in 2016 placed Adams State on probation largely because of the school’s handling of its online courses, including high faculty teaching loads and poor faculty-student interaction. McClure has said the HLC was using Adams State as a “whipping boy.”
And last year, the state auditor’s office cited $98.7 million in capital construction costs for saddling the university with an annual debt service of more than $4 million a year.
As for McClure, Simpson declined to say anything more than that the trustees and McClure now have different priorities.
“There are a number of outcomes to this down the road, but I really can’t discuss those,” Simpson said.